Feels Like Home
by TheMatador
Summary: After the DoM Harry gets some unexpected help from a rather unusual source. Rated T because I've never done this before and there may be some language issues later. Abandoned as of 5th Apr. 2011. Restarted as Feels Like Home New
1. Prologue A Surprising Conversation

Disclaimer. None of the stuff is mine really, all is borrowed or outright stolen form more gifted writers than myself. Ultimately of course all is owned by JKR anyway.

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For the Greater Good. How hollow those words felt. That he had forced an innocent child into such an abusive situation purely because he believed it was the best alternative in spite of what others may say. That said child had now lost the closest remaining link to his family because he himself had fallen into the trap of not warning him of his destiny early enough left a distinctly unpleasant taste in his mouth.

He hadn't seen the boy all day. Not surprising after the information he had received last night that he should need some time to come to terms with everything but he couldn't help but be concerned.

It was in the middle of his concerned musings that Albus Dumbledore felt the school wards flare, not in a way that suggested direct interference, more like they were welcoming something, but that made no sense.

Quickly getting up and leaving his meal he ignored the concerned looks from his staff and made his way to the Headmasters office in order to analyse the unexpected intrusion. The minutes it took to reach his destination only served to confuse him more as the castle was giving him no clear indication of cause of the flare.

Finally reaching the door of his office he was stunned to see a man and woman behind his desk. The woman who was sat in his chair was strikingly attractive. Long thick and wavy black hair framed a slightly tanned face with piercing intelligent blue eyes and a strange rueful smile. The clothes she was wearing were clearly from a different era but for all that looked extremely expensive. The most noticeable thing though was still her hair which had a platinum blonde streak, about an inch thick slightly left of centre as Albus was looking.

The man standing behind her was covered in a dark grey/brown cloak with his hood up. Standing about six feet tall there was little that Albus could discern about him save that he appeared to be wearing an odd looking tight dark purple leather tunic beneath his cloak and he carried a strange looking black staff which appeared to have a beautiful white pearl about three inches in diameter at its head. Albus was strangely drawn to the pearl which seemed give off magic in waves and looked to be shimmering strangely.

Albus was extremely wary, in spite of the lack of reaction of the Hogwarts wards to the intruders, and was surreptitiously attempting to reach his wand.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, I have heard much about you" spoke the women holding up her hand to prevent the headmaster for interrupting. "For an awfully long time I have been prepared to despise you and curse you for your arrogance and manipulation."

The professor's eyebrows rose in surprise and no little amusement at the woman's calm statement of her harmful intent towards him of all people.

"Imagine my surprise," she continued, "when the moment I arrive and communicate with the school, I find her defending you and your actions, not condoning them you understand, more stating that while you have made mistakes, for the most part the decisions you have made have been based on the best available information at the time."

Dumbledore's mouth was agape at the stranger's casual mention of communicating with the castle, something he himself had only been able to do very rarely.

"It is rather vexing as I had prepared myself for an interesting duel on my husband's behalf. I knew he would most likely not punish you sufficiently for your transgressions against him so I have been preparing myself mentally for this confrontation and now I find my preparation is all for naught. I find myself rather annoyed."

There was a snort from the man behind her and his staff shook slightly suggesting he was trying to contain his laughter, unfortunately for him his wife noticed. "And you-" she turned and confronted the man, "less of that or I'll be forced to take my frustrations out on you and I promise you the resulting fight will be extremely one sided!" The man immediately tried to calm himself but after a few moments failed and the snort gave way to a rumbling chuckle.

Albus looked on amused as the woman in front of him failed to contain her own mirth as her mouth twitched before she giggled pleasantly.

After a few moments he cleared his throat and dared to break the strangely beautiful moment he had just witnessed. "I'm sorry my lady, I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage. Clearly you know of me but I am as yet unable to name you or indeed the husband I have somehow wronged."

"Of course, how rude of me, I am Rowena Potter, though of course you are more likely to know me as Rowena Ravenclaw."


	2. Partial Explanations

Disclaimer - If your thinkig that any of this belongs to me rather than Jk Rowling you have problems that yo seriously need to get checked out

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It took Albus a few moments to recover his wits enough to ask the inevitable questions. In the meantime, the strange man, Harry, had lowered his hood and Albus noted the famous scar had faded to a thin white line, the glasses had disappeared and he was left staring into striking emerald green eyes. The man in front of him was clearly Harry Potter, just a Harry Potter who was 20-30years older than he had been yesterday. His black hair now fell in waves to his shoulders and thick dark stubble covered his jaw. That said this Harry Potter had a confident air about him, something the younger man had never possessed.

"H-How?"

The man in front of him smiled, "Well, it's a rather odd story and I would like to limit the number of times I have to talk about it. Could you possibly ask Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Babbling up here please?"

If the Headmaster was shocked by the addition of Professor Babbling to the list, he did his best not to let it show.

"Mr Potter are you sure they are the only people you wish to invite." enquired the Professor.

Harry smiled. "For now. I'll explain things to my friends separately."

Bemused Dumbledore sent notes off to the Professors with Fawkes.

The moments passed in what for Dumbledore was a rather odd silence as he watched the couple who were still sat behind 'his' desk.

Eventually the guests filed in and Albus chuckled as they mirrored his expression of a few minutes previously. The indignation of Minerva as she saw the pair sat behind the Headmaster's was especially entertaining.

"Good evening all of you. You have been invited here to hear the explanation behind a rather unusual phenomenon." Looking at the couple he continued "Do you wish to explain the situation or shall I?"

After a moment's thought Harry answered "Why don't you explain last night and I'll take over from the point I left your office."

Nodding the Headmaster began. "Very well." He opened, looking at the three teachers before him "I believe you are all well aware of the incident at the Ministry yesterday?" upon receiving their nods he continued. "Well after Voldemort's retreat I sent Mr Potter back to this office whereupon I informed of the many things, most notably, the reason for which the Dark Lord is so fixated upon him.

"After finally hearing this information which he had been asking for almost since he began at Hogwarts, he was understandably upset, hence the state of many of the instruments around the office." This news clearly startled the three Professors as they took in the sight of the many now malformed devices dotted around the room. The three other occupants looked on somewhat entertained although Harry looked rather sheepish.

"Eventually he left my office and I know for a fact he went back to Gryffindor tower. From there though I am at a loss so Harry if you would like to continue?" He asked Harry expectantly, eyes twinkling brightly. Harry just snorted.

"Albus what are you talking about?" interrupted Professor McGonagall. "You mean to tell me this man here is little Harry?" Harry bristled at the little comment while Rowena giggled prettily.

"Yes Professor it's me, just me aged twenty eight years."

"I have no doubt that it is indeed you Mr Potter, the way in which Albus' eyes are twinkling suggests no other possibility" stated Professor Babbling, "I am rather confused though as to why I have been invited to this little meeting. As far as I am aware, our only interactions have been limited to whenever you are dragged along behind Miss Granger as she enquires about some of the finer points of her studies?"

Nodding to the middle-aged woman Harry replied "While that is true, I believe that will change rather soon, all will be explained, however the short answer is that I have become something of a Rune scholar." This time it was Rowena's turn to snort as the professor just raised an eyebrow sceptically in response.

Rolling his eyes Harry moved round the desk and handed her his staff, "If you're in doubt have a quick look at that and remember I made it."

The scepticism was quickly replaced by awe on the Rune teachers face as she took in the sight before her; the other teachers too were transfixed as they took in the beautiful obsidian staff. Albus looked on in pride at his former student's creation as he realised the shimmering effect he had noticed previously from the pearl atop the staff was actually caused by a plethora of Runes of many types moving blow the surface of the gem.

After a minute Harry held out his hand expectantly and Professor Babbling reluctantly handed the staff back. "Don't worry Professor, I'll give you a full demonstration tomorrow." The professor smiled in relief at the offering from Harry, eyes still flicking towards the staff.

Taking a deep breath to steel himself Harry was grateful for the support of his wife who was stroking his back soothingly.

"After finally getting to bed that night, last night for you, I understandably struggled to get to drop off. At about four thirty when I had finally fallen asleep I was shaken awake by someone, I will not say who." He looked sternly at all the listeners and Professor Dumbledore in particular.

"She informed me that she was from a timeline in which everything was allowed to run its course, where the mistakes made were not rectified but instead allowed to multiply and as a result there was much heartache and loss.

"After the war, and about twenty five years into the future, in that timeline, the Department of Mysteries discovers a way to both simulate and facilitate time travel. After many studies it was decided that it would be most effective if I was sent back having heard Voldemort's reasoning for attacking me, to a point in time which I could train and learn about magic, without the significant pressure of dealing with a Dark Lord hanging over my head.

"At this point though I was on my own." The professor's were rather confused by the sad look that crossed Harry's face and the comfort Rowena gave him.

"I stumbled to the Room of Requirement, where in a bit of a daze I entered only to find I was not alone. Instead I was joined by a physical representation of Hogwarts in the form of a middle-aged Helga Hufflepuff." Harry shook his head at the questioning look he was receiving from the Headmaster. "It seems that Hogwarts is built at the intersection of a significant number of Ley lines, providing a significant proportion of magical power. As I was in the Room of Requirement and 'required' to go back in time to a point I was able to train successfully Hogwarts, through Helga, explained the process through which it could be done and tapped into the Ley lines in order to make it happen.

"I arrived in June 932 AD and was immediately confronted with a teenage Helga Hufflepuff and her mother, Leola." He smiled at this and all of the Professor's could see the affection in which he held the two women. "They took me in, and when I explained the situation they agreed to help me. Helga is, was sorry, something of a Potions goddess, a full master at thirteen, the year before I met her, a reclusive and somewhat odd kid but given my state at the time, I'm hardly one to talk. As I expected I am neither as good at Potions as my mother is reputed to have been nor as bad as Snape makes out. She was also rather gifted at magical creatures and Herbology and between her and one of her squib uncles Hector I believe I could successfully walk any NEWT exam they would care to give me, in either subject.

"Leola was a Charms enthusiast" he smiled fondly "but a Rune master. She was the finest Enchantress I have ever heard of and one the greatest women I have ever known. Damn scary though." He chuckled then winced as Rowena clipped him around the back of his head. "She taught me everything I know." At this Rowena coughed and looked at him pointedly and Harry sighed. "Okay she taught me a lot and then I built on it to make things like my staff, and this cloak and armour."

Rowena looked rather satisfied by this admission having managed to get Harry to take some pride in his own work. Harry continued "She taught me all about Charms as she knew it and Runes and in return I taught the pair of them Transfiguration, which at that time it appears was something of a family secret, known only to a few, and defence, which was deemed unladylike and not suitable for ladies of a certain standing." Both Harry and Rowena scowled at this, while the listening Professors frowned.

"Err...Mr Potter, while I have no doubt your Transfiguration skills are adequate to impart some knowledge of the subject on to the ladies, and your reputation as something of a Defence prodigy proceeds you, you cannot surely have received no further instruction?" asked an incredulous Professor McGonagall.

Rowena looked outraged at the Professor's insinuation that her husband's skills were inadequate, though she was somewhat mollified by the respectful and slightly awed tone in her voice. Seeing his wife's expression Harry smirked. "Professor you may or may not know about the significant power of this castle. This castle knows every belonging of every person within its walls, as such if somebody has a significant claim on something, say some family books" he gave Dumbledore a significant look at this "The castle can return them to their rightful owner. As it happens there were a large proportion of books belonging to me stored in the castle."

Dumbledore looked rather guilty at this and Harry looked at him with an amused smile. "It's okay Professor, you were saving them from looters and I really wasn't ready for them at that point." The headmaster looked extremely relieved at his response though Professor McGonagall still looked at the Headmaster with a somewhat disapproving gaze.

"Given my families historical affinities, a large number of these books revolved around Transfiguration and Transfiguration techniques as well as Runes and Charms.

"That's a good point actually while I think about it when it came to deciding electives why did none of the teachers think to mention my family's affinity for Runes?" Harry enquired looking pointedly at Dumbledore and McGonagall, though surprisingly it was Professor Babbling who looked the guiltiest.

"Mr Potter I believe that most of the blame their lies with me. Knowing your family I was naturally looking forward to teaching you, unfortunately it appears sitting too close to Severus at meal times has coloured my opinions of you somewhat and I decided not to take the time to talk to you."

The Runes professor wilted under the stern glare she was receiving from the woman that as yet she didn't know. Unfortunately for her Professor's Flitwick and McGonagall were looking at her with equal disgust while the Headmaster just looked disappointed.

Harry cleared his throat to break the tension in the room. "Be that as it may, we had books available as I was able to take the Potter library back with me and we were able to learn as we went. While Transfiguration may not ultimately be my strongest subject I believe I am adequately skilled."

"Harry!" warned Rowena sternly and the guests looked at her in surprise as to their knowledge she had not yet done anything but snort, offer comfort and glare at them.

"Okay I'm rather good at it." He responded rather sheepishly.

"That's better." She replied seemingly satisfied.

"Really Mr Potter?" enquired McGonagall "Perhaps a demonstration?"

"Could we wait until tomorrow? There's a lot to get through and I-" seeing that this argument was one he would lose he gave in. "Oh alright fine but only a quick one I've a lot to talk about."

Closing his eyes for just a moment and taking a breath to settle himself, Harry began a series of intricate wand movements, and within seconds the empty sofa in the office was a large golden throne, a further series of movements and it was a small rhinoceros, seconds later it was a rose bush before it finally returned to the original sofa.

"Is that sufficient?" Harry asked rather impudently with a hint of a smirk on his face.

He quailed at the look he received from his former Professor who nevertheless gave an affirmative nod. Rowena too was smirking as unlike Harry she could tell the strict Transfiguration mistress was trying to rein in her enthusiasm for the display she had just witnessed.

Professor Flitwick had no such qualms and bouncing enthusiastically asked "My word Mr Potter! That was quite an impressive demonstration, and you say Transfiguration is not your area of expertise? Might I enquire what is? Defence perhaps?"

Now grinning again Harry replied "Charms and Runes Professor."

The diminutive Professor looked delighted. "I would be happy to give you a demonstration of what I know and learnt, in fact I've written a few books I can show you though I would ask that we can do it another day I have twenty eight years of information to give and an effective Charms demonstration would significantly eat into our time." The Charms professor nodded happily and motioned for Harry to continue his story.

"Anyway the years passed, just under three it took before I knew as much as Leola, her brothers and Helga could teach me. It was a wonderful time almost the best of my life. Learning all the magic I could, learning to be self sufficient, learning the Potter affinities, such as masonry and sculpture as well as the animagus transformation. Later Professor." He stated with a smile as he saw his former Head of House perk up. "I learnt all twelve Runic alphabets and the-"

"Eleven alphabets Mr Potter, though that you know all the Mayan and Sino-Tibetan is impressive."

His smile grew wider as he answered the Runes professor "Twelve ma'am. I've written a book on Ogham runes and their interactions that you might like to read. They are not as lost as most scholars believe."

She looked at him sharply and was rewarded with a knowing smile and a laugh from his female companion.

"I also underwent a ritual that undid the damage done by both the Dursleys and my adventures at school." At this Professor Babbling looked confusedly at the other professors who shook their heads in response aware that the Runes professor would soon be filled in about the unusual activities of the so-called Golden trio and Harry Potter in particular.

"After that I travelled with Helga taking in Scandinavia, the Middle-East, Alexandria and Sub-Saharan Africa, we were there for quite a while." Rowena snorted again and the audience looked at her expectantly. "You'll find out tomorrow." Was Harry's response. On the way we met Griffins and Mermen and Tebo's as well as Graphorn's and...other creatures. I picked up a familiar, who will be joining us shortly and when we finally returned three years later we discovered that people had been looking for Helga since they had heard of her Potions prowess and wanted her to get involved in a school they were planning on building.

"After hearing this we went looking for the group and stumbled into a fight. I save Rowena Ravenclaw from bandits and next thing I know I'm being attacked by Slytherin and Gryffindor thinking that I was attacking Rowena. The fight went on for twenty minutes before Rowena finally manages to get our attention and stop us from acting like complete numpties. After that little display gets sorted out Helga gets in with the crowd and agrees to be the Potions and Herbology teacher for the new school Hogwarts."

After Harry finished the silence began to stretch on Harry started to feel nervous. "Err...are there any questions?"

Clearing his throat Dumbledore asked the first thing that came into his head. "Harry, not that we don't believe you, but if you were so heavily involved in the founding of Hogwarts I presume I would have heard about it."

At this point it was Rowena who replied. "Headmaster what is the most precious artefact of the school from the so-called Founder's era? Is there not a book that documents the Founding of the school?"

"Indeed" replied Dumbledore thoughtfully, "Though I do not recall any mention of another person involved in the school founding as closely as you imply your husband is Mrs Potter."

"Rowena please." She smiled at the sharp intake of breath from the other three professors as they realised who they were talking to. "I am well aware that there is no mention of Harry within that book. I should know, my modification of the Fidelius charm took months."

"Fidelius?"

"Absolutely. If Harry was to be a teacher then a conventional Fidelius Charm couldn't be used or all the information he passed on would be forgotten and it had to be stringent enough that no knowledge of Harry's presence in the past could be leaked. Besides after meeting him how could all of us not allow Harry to get involved in the building of and teaching at Hogwarts."

Seeing the other Professors looking confused at the mention of the book Harry took pity on them. "Go and get the book Albus, it will help everyone."

The headmaster shuffled off into a side room and returned two minutes later carefully holding a thick but rather delicate looking tome.

"Open it up to page seventeen." Albus did so and invited the three professors to read the information within. It seemed to be a rather non-descript page stating the methods by which the masonry was done.

Seeing that the professors were finished reading he spoke again, "Darling if you would be so kind."

"Of course 'Harry Potter was the Fifth Founder and First Headmaster of Hogwarts School'" With that simple statement page seventeen changed beyond all recognition.


	3. Further Explanations

Disclaimer - As stated previously all of this isn't mine and it never really will be. Sure there are a few ideas thrown in but basically it's me standing on the shoulders of giants. See JKR's stuff really and look on my profile to see where the rest of my inspiration comes from.

BTW. You will notice I have some issues with apostrophe's, capitalisations and sentence structures. This has been pointed out to me and I agree whole-heartedly. I am working without a beta and have no intention of being a writer but I would still like to improve so if anyone has any advice please don't hesitate to send it along.

For those of you reading the diary as well I kind of made a mistake and forgot that there were things in there that had no real explanation yet. The bits talking about Ginny, Ron and Hermione in particular, hence I'm rushing these out as soon as I can trying to catch up. This Chapter should get us a step closer to people understanding whats going on.

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As the four teachers looked on they were shocked as the page morphed into a description of Harry Potter and the Potter family magics that were involved in the building of Hogwarts. Briefly thumbing through the rest of the book they caught glimpses of Harry's name throughout. Completely stunned the three teachers and headmaster looked up to see the smiling faces of Harry and Rowena Potter.

"Believe me now Professors?" asked Harry with a confident smile.

The stunned silence spoke volumes as the four collapsed back into their chairs.

"As I said I spent a significant amount of time looking at Potter family magic and unsurprisingly given our name a large portion of it involved the manipulation of stone in terms of both masonry and sculpture. In conjunction with my knowledge of Runes and Charms it made me the natural choice for building the castle, though obviously, I had a huge amount of help from everybody."

"He's being modest aren't you dear" interjected Rowena affectionately. "The truth is it's entirely due to Harry that it took less than three years to build and ward the castle." She looked at him proudly

"Come on Row we all had our role to play."

"Yes and yours was chief architect, warder and builder Harry, don't put yourself down."

"Yes dear." Harry replied in a tone that implied long suffering and that rather amused their audience.

"Anyway" he continued "After having agreed to make the school we discovered our talents rather coincided. As a result we divided the ten subjects we were set to teach with each of us taking two, Transfiguration and Physical Education for Godric, Potions and Herbology for Helga Magical Creatures and Battle Magic for Salazar, Arithmancy and Magical Theory for Row and Runes and Charms for me. That decided we thought about dividing the students, each of the other teachers tried to look for students who embodied particular traits. Personally I liked them to be balanced, so looked for the more well-rounded students. It actually ended up that students switched into my house as they grew up and became more balanced, it's one of the things I'm most disappointed about having to leave the school as it was in my time here."

"What Harry is failing to tell you" interrupted Rowena "Is that he was far and away the most balanced of all of us, Godric was reckless, Helga sadistic in her work ethic, Salazar was quiet and occasionally deceitful while I was lost in my books before he brought us all out of ourselves. Really he was the only real candidate for headmaster as he was the only one of us who was even remotely normal."

Harry chuckled in amusement at the idea that he was normal.

"The rest of us," Rowena ploughed on "conformed to certain stereotypes and in doing so covered all the bases, our roles were easily defined. I was the Spell Crafter and Magical Theorist, Godric was the Battle Mage and was phenomenal in a duel with both wands and weapons, Helga was the Potions Mistress, and Salazar was the Beast Master. With the exception of Helga who had been taught by both Harry and her mother in different aspects of magic we were rather insular and when Harry turned up it was rather embarrassing for Godric, Salazar and myself. He was better at Charms and Runes than me, almost as good as Godric in Transfiguration, had knowledge of magical creatures almost on a par with Salazar and knew more about Potions than any save Helga. If I'm honest he made us all feel inadequate." Harry himself snorted at this in disbelief though he was shushed by his wife.

"The training he had been doing meant that the definitions that could be applied to the rest of us didn't quite work for Harry. He's an enchanter, a warder, an architect, a sculptor, a mason, a smith, a hunter and a fighter. One of the funniest things I remember was early on when Salazar wasn't too impressed with Harry and challenged him to a duel. The duel itself was unremarkable," seeing the surprised look on her audiences face she backtracked "don't get me wrong there was some phenomenal magic being thrown around but the thing that stuck out was the bemused look on Harry's face all the way through it. After he lost on a technicality Harry laughed and Salazar was affronted so Harry challenged him to a magical fight instead. It was hilarious and lasted a grand total of thirty seven seconds before Salazar was trussed up like a smoked ham. Duels between the other two and Harry were always close, though they tended to shade them but as soon as the formal setting was out of the window they were almost always battered." Rowena smiled fondly in remembrance.

"You only truly appreciated my fighting after Salazar started off on his rants."

"Yes well his beatings were thoroughly deserved." Rowena replied primly. "Women have no place learning offensive magic, honestly, what kind of nonsense is that." Rowena muttered, while Harry smiled knowingly and the two female professors looked affronted.

"After a few years and our first students were ready to start graduating and we took them on as apprentices, most of the girls wanting to go with Harry obviously." Rowena smirked "Apparently we had a generation of witches all drawn to becoming Enchantresses." She grinned.

"Yeah and all the blokes were dedicated Magical Theorists, the fact that it involved working in close proximity with you had nothing to do with it." Harry chuckled, the glint in his eye illustrating his mirth as he watched his wife scowl.

"Anyway, after a time we managed to step back and some of our apprentices took over the teaching and allowed us take a more relaxed role, I only taught Magical Theory, Harry only taught Advanced Runes, ultimately it allowed us to prepare for the time when Harry had to come back and face his Dark Lord. For him" she pointed at Harry "That was messing around making those ludicrous weapons of his and monkeying around with Thretallon."

"Oi! Show some respect!" responded Harry indignantly. "You love Thretallon and my 'weapon' as you call it is a thing of beauty."

"Overcompensating for something is what it is, someone who needs a seven and a half foot long blade has some issues they would rather not draw attention too."

"As I remember it you certainly didn't think I had any issues last night! A fact you proclaimed loudly and vehemently and with great regularity!"

Suddenly extremely red, Rowena could no longer look any of their audience in the eye.

"Yes!" yelled Harry, seemingly oblivious of his audience "I win the argument! I never win!"

The teachers observed the pair with an amused air, in spite of the subject matter, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall in particular were delighted to see the teasing nature of the couple's relationship and the manner in which Harry had grown.

Smiling broadly at the sight in front of him it was Dumbledore who spoke next. "At the risk of returning us to somewhat risqué topics, might I ask who or what Thretallon is and the nature of these ah 'ludicrous weapons' I believe you called them?"

Rowena looked rather smug at the continued description of the weapons as ludicrous.

"Firstly, Thretallon is my familiar. Are any of you aware of the origin of Hippogriffs?"

"Of course," responded Professor McGonagall "they are the offspring of Griffins and horses."

"In a manner of speaking that's true." Replied Harry "The truth is Griffins and horses despise each other and hippogriffs are the result of a disgraced Griffin being forced to mate with a horse in punishment for some wrong doing." The professors were all slightly disgusted at the thought. "Thretallon is rather different, despite all being so called light creatures, all equine magical creatures, Abraxans, Pegasi, Unicorns all shun Griffins due to this treatment of their non-magical brethren. Thretallon is unusual as he is the result of a love match between a Griffin and a Unicorn, as cross-species matches go the details are obviously rather icky but Thretallon himself is great.

"As for the weapons, which despite what Row may tell you are perfectly reasonable, I carry four weapons with me at all times. Three of them I took a rather long time Enchanting."

With that Harry took a strange dark knife from a sheath on his left arm, the knife looked frighteningly sharp and the handle which appeared to be made of Onyx had a bear embossed in silver on it. Harry laid it carefully on the table. "This dirk was a gift from Leola Hufflepuff, it's been in her family for generations. The rest I made myself."

The next item was an odd braided rope seemingly a few metres long which split into three at one end, each of those ends finished with a black pearl an inch in diameter. "A bolas, formed from the hair of a Veela, a Thestral and Thretallon braided together, and topped with black pearls. Each strand of the hair is enchanted, disillusionment for the Thestral, a form of Confundus on the Veela and a rather vicious Potter modification of a petrificus on Thretallon's. The pearls then have a magic nullifier, a Patronus and a beacon charm so I can find it disillusioned." The professors stared at the weighted rope with something akin to awe.

"Mr Potter, am I right in thinking then that that this...bolas" Dumbledore appeared to stumble of the apparently alien word, "has the same effect as a Patronus? That effectively acts as a containment field for a dementor?" Harry smiled.

It's better than that Professor; with the addition of the magic nullifying field the Dementor's magic cannot support it against the presence of the Patronus. It kills them."

The group looked astonished.

Next Harry brought out a pair of eighteen inch long hatchets formed from some odd silvery metal and an obsidian handle. "There isn't that much to these just pretty much every cutting curse I know of embedded in the blade, and a cauterizing charm which prevents the wound from healing quickly without the correct counter curse."

"The final weapon is my masterpiece" Harry stated proudly as he held his staff. "It's taken me years but I reckon it's worth it.

"It has three forms. Firstly the staff, this has all the embedded spells you might expect along with two rather special extras. The first calls forth my own Earthen Golem as a shield, the second is a modified ward which includes anti-apparition, anti-portkey and anti-threat wards among others.

"The second," he flourished the staff elaborately, "Is a Battle Hammer." As he proudly displayed a huge looking metal head atop a three foot long thick obsidian handle. "This has Stone Gouging and Drilling spells embedded in it along with a special Lightning spell from the Vikings, the whole Thor thing was a little too tempting" Harry smiled.

"The final one is my favourite." With another elaborate flourish, the hammer changed again, into a bizarre seven and a half foot long staff. The top two and a half feet were made up of a curved symmetric sword two inches wide at the base and over four inches at its widest point about two thirds of the way up before it curved back into a point. Housed in the centre of its widest point was yet another pearl, this one purple. And the bottom of the four and a half foot long obsidian staff was a six-inch long spear. Made of the same strange silvery metal as the blade, hammer and hatchets, the teachers were silent as they looked at the beautiful object in front of them.

Slowly Professor Babbling reached out to touch the impressive blade. "I wouldn't do that Professor," started Rowena "you haven't been properly keyed in. The results can be rather unpleasant if you grab it unauthorized."

The Runes teacher backed away rather quickly, and allowed Harry to carry on. "There's a modified fire spell on it." With that the blade suddenly danced with rich purple flames and the Runes Professor turned slightly green at the thought of what the flames might have done to her. "They're keyed not to hurt the wielder. They burn hotter than the standard 'incendio's' and require a specific counterspell." Harry muttered something and the flames went out. "Other than that there are the same enchantments as the hatchets in terms of Cutting and Slicing hexes and curses."

After a moments stunned silence it was Professor Flitwick who gathered his wits first. "Mr Potter, these are fabulous!" the Charms teacher asserted excitedly. "If these can do even part of what you say I have no problem recommending you for immediate acceptance to the Council of Creative Charmers!" Professor Babbling nodded in agreement.

"I founded it Professor."

"Ah, so I guess we can no longer get away with our spiel about our origins being mysterious and lost to antiquity then can we?" responded the diminutive teacher somewhat dejectedly.

Rowena scoffed. "You're joking aren't you? He was the one who wrote that tripe! I'd imagine he would be rather disappointed if you stopped now." She looked at Harry expectantly who just shrugged in response

"Excellent, the Council will be most pleased!" replied Flitwick much more brightly.

"Despite what Row here has told you it wasn't all preparing for war, the school did well and started to get a good reputation, we actually ended up attracting fully qualified witches and wizards who would come both for sanctuary and to carry out their own studies. We became a magical University of a sort. Then came the fallout" both Harry and Rowena looked upset at that, "and we had a dark couple of years, but things were getting much better and we knew that we couldn't put off coming back any longer."

"Fascinating." Dumbledore stated happily. "I believe that at some point we would very much like to see a demonstration of your new skills Harry."

"Speak for yourself Albus," interrupted McGonagall, "I distinctly remember being promised a demonstration of an animagus form."

Smiling at the Gryffindor heads enthusiasm Harry moved around to the front of the desk. "You might want to move back Professors, my form takes up rather a lot of room."

Once the audience were a suitable distance away, Harry transformed. In his place was a huge creature, four and a half feet high, fifteen feet long. The creature's legs and belly were covered in scales and the front legs ended in talons the back ones ended in feline claws. Towards the creatures back, head and tail the scales gave way to fur, short soft and feline over his hindquarters, thicker rougher and more lupine over his forequarters. The beast's head had aspects reminiscent of both large cats and wolves, though the underside of his jaw was covered in the same scales as its belly. The creature had tiger-like colouration, covering both the fur and scale portions of his body though it was grey and black rather than the more traditional orange or white. It still had Harry's startling green eyes and the fur directly between its ears had a windswept look that instantly reminded those present of the wizard he had transformed from.

"An alphyn!" gasped McGonagall before she collapsed into the closest chair.

Harry quickly turned back and smiled at his favourite professor. "Was that suitable Professor?"

"Minerva please." She answered distractedly and Harry's smile grew wider. "I'm sorry Mr Potter b-"

"Harry" she nodded at his response

"Harry, but I have never heard of a magical animagus before. There have been unsubstantiated reports Merlin being a Hun O'r Tylwyth Teg Cath* but never thought..."

"Sorry to interrupt Pro...Minerva but my form isn't actually magical, there's none of the fire-breathing or ridiculously enhanced physical prowess and toughness of a real alphyn. I just have the physical body, the speed and agility from the cat, the stamina and determination of the wolf and toughness of the dragon part."

"But then how do you have that form Harry? Based on the assumption that Merlin's form was magical, it has always been theorised that magic and body are inextricably linked, therefore if you have the physique of a magical animal for your animagus form, you should also have their abilities?" asked an intrigued Transfiguration teacher.

"Well Harry's form isn't strictly an animagus form is it honey?" Rowena prompted.

"Not exactly no." Harry continued to the silent Professors. "Actually my animagus form is a dire wolf but I'm never going to be able to complete that transformation." Harry sighed and looked at the confused audience.

Seeing them struggle he asked a question "Have any of you heard of the Totem Ritual?" At their negative responses Harry carried on. "The Totem Ritual is a method by which a magic user can get in touch with their magical core. The core always has a physical manifestation as an animal, which animal can be used to determine the specialities of said magic user. By getting in touch sufficiently with your magic core you are able to become your Totem animal. In my case that would have been a maltese tiger. If someone uses both the animagus revealing potion and the totem ritual, the forms of both actually combine to form something else." At this point Harry turned to Rowena who nodded.

"In Row's case her Animagus form is a snowy owl and her totem form a gyrfalcon. The two forms combined and she is able to become a Roc." Rowena was instantly replaced by a huge majestic white bird which observed the onlookers imperiously before she quickly returned to her human form with a slight smile on her face.

"While Row has all of the physical attributes of a Roc she does not have the immense, magically enhanced strength or the ability to magically travel they possess. Similarly, Godric's animagus form was a barbary lion but his totem was a kodiak bear, hence he ultimately became a Warg. Helga was a combination of a european badger and a honey badger" both Rowena and Harry shuddered "and absolutely vicious, while Salazar was a burmese python and a griffon vulture and became an Occamy.

"My form is complicated slightly by Voldemort's killing curse as it had a significant effect on my magical core. When I did the ritual I saw a maltese tiger attacked by a komodo dragon. Though it ultimately defeated it, the two combined to form a part tiger, part lizard creature which combined with the dire wolf after the animagus revealing potion to form a non-magical Alphyn."

"How have I never heard of this." muttered Professor Dumbledore, most likely to himself but Harry answered anyway.

"The Potter library had only two books which mentioned anything about it, and one of them was only in passing. I think it only had them because of my dad. I think it's likely that Wormtail didn't have an actual animagus form as he lacked the necessary power to change into whichever animal fit best with his personality."

Turning to Professor McGonagall he continued "That's what we've theorised about why some people have forms and some do not. Those that are unable to find a suitable animal it is most likely that they lack sufficient power to become a physical manifestation of the animal they most closely identify with." She nodded contemplatively and he continued to the rest of the audience.

"It is our theory" he pointed to himself and his wife "that in order to help his friend" Harry scowled at this "my dad found an alternative method of transforming and it was Wormtail totem form that was actually a rat. Being generally incompetent he then didn't do the meditation on his animal forms personality correctly and instead of properly researching what rats are like just accepted that they were dirty, survivors only out for themselves. As he spent more time in his form he gradually adopted the animal personality he had accepted as his own; ultimately leading to the betrayal of his friends." As Harry finished Rowena's arms snaked around him offering him comfort. Even after all the extra time to get used to it and the presence of a mother figure in his life, Wormtail's betrayal of his parents still hurt.

Professor Babbling was completely confused by the situation now and had to whisper to Professor Flitwick. "Filius, why is Mr Potter talking about his father and who is Wormtail?"

Whispering himself in response Flitwick answered. "To help Remus Lupin through his transformations, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew became animagi. James became a stag and I believe was nicknamed Prongs, Sirius Black, the boys godfather became a grim-like black dog that I've heard was named Padfoot and Peter Pettigrew became a rat named Wormtail. It appears that Harry here has a theory as to how one of four such close friends could turn betrayer."

Taking a deep breath, Harry spoke again. "Professors is there anything else you wanted to ask about? I think the pair of us are both rather tired and I can only imagine it will be a long day tomorrow. I need to speak with Ginny especially, Ron and Hermione too." Looking solely at Dumbledore now he carried on "You and I also need to have a talk Professor" as he tapped his head meaningfully.

The headmaster as startled though he nodded in agreement. Seeing no further response from the staff, Harry took his wife's hand and calmly led her out of the office leaving a collection of thunderstruck adults in their wake.

* * *

* Taken from Harry Potter and the Forgotten Shards by wargear. I really liked the idea of Merlin being a winged kitten. Following on from this my actual explanation wold be that Merlin used a Totem Ritual and got a magical animal rather than the Animagus form. A magical animal is an indication of his magical core being that much more powerful than everyone else.


	4. Contemplations and Commiserations

Disclaimer - The usual. Not mine never will be, thank you to JKR and everyone else for allowing me to play.

If this Chapter feels a little rushed it's because it was. It's been written to try and fill in the gaps between the Diary and this story in regard to Ginny and in part the bits about Ron and Hermione and sort out the mistake I made in publishing the diary story as far as I have without thinking it through. The same warnings from the last chapter still stand. I'm not a writer and I have no beta. By all means tell me ways you think I might improve.

* * *

For four of the teachers within the walls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry it was a case of the morning after the night before following the revelation that a boy, now a man, who they had been teaching just days prior, was actually a Founder. The quartet had sat in stunned silence for a significant length of time before slowly making their way to their respective rooms.

Sleep did not come easily for any of them. For Minerva McGonagall it was the shock of seeing a pupil who was one of her favourites, succeed in becoming the man he was born to be. In spite of the affection which she held for him, she had always been slightly disappointed in Harry, who when first appeared, seemed to have neither his father's easy charm and charisma or his mother's intellect. That this was in no small part due to her agreement to place him with the Dursleys had weighed heavily on her for many years, and it was only this year, with the long overdue appearance of his father's charisma as he led the DA, that fears she had been complicit in causing irreparable damage to the child finally began to recede. That such a child would become a Founder, the first Headmaster even, of her school filled her with both pride for his achievement, and regret at the necessity of such drastic measures. Of course her lack of sleep could also be blamed on her recovery from receiving so many simultaneous stunners, but for the most part she deemed her restlessness due to the night's revelations.

For Filius Flitwick the excitement of one of his students becoming a Charms master made settling down rather difficult. That little Harry Potter, and there were very few people Filius felt comfortable calling little, who appeared so shy and overwhelmed as an eleven year old should follow in his mothers footsteps and become a Charms master was cause for celebration. That he also appeared to be perhaps the greatest enchanter Filius had ever heard of and the architect of Hogwarts renowned wards filled the small professor with an overwhelming sense of pride.

Bathsheba Babbling felt rather different. When she had first noticed Harry Potter as an eleven year old she was rather confused that this tiny little thing could be the child of Lily and James Potter. Two years of sitting next to Severus Snape had left her rather disappointed with the boy so when the time came that she had earmarked to speak to him about her class she let it pass. The subsequent years had done nothing to dissuade her from her decision. Apart from Snape numerous other Professor's including Minerva had made it known, perhaps not intentionally, that they were disappointed in the child. He was powerful certainly, but lazy, intelligent but not overly so, rarely motivated to work to his full potential. Truth be told from afar he seemed like a stereotypical Gryffindor. Not especially hardworking or ambitious almost determined not to make use of his intelligence and a tendency to get into unusual scrapes earmarked him as a lion through and through. Having heard his story or at least parts of it from Minerva and Filius after leaving the office, she was disgusted with herself. Knowing something of abused children it was immediately obvious why Harry was the way he was, he had been brought up to do worse than his cousin hence no hard work or ambition and an engrained aversion to using his intelligence. That she had allowed herself to be swayed by the clearly biased testimony of others sickened her. That she had missed out on teaching a true Runemaster was a fitting punishment though perhaps not enough, especially now it appeared that he was going to give her an opportunity to study both his Enchantments and his Wards. Yes it was a very guilty Bathsheba babbling who eventually drifted off that night.

Albus Dumbledore just gave up on the idea of sleeping entirely. He was filled with a strange combination of relief and regret. Relief that the decisions he had made in regard to Harry Potter, though they would never and could never be vindicated, had at least had most of their unpleasant effects on Harry negated. Regret of course that in no small part due to his own actions in regard to the boy the coming war would apparently have been especially violent and resulted in the apparent necessity of significant manipulation of the timeline. Of course a greater portion of his night's musings was in regard to what this now meant in relation to the prophecy. Clearly 'the Power he knows not' could be anything and though Dumbledore still thought based on the interaction between Harry and Rowena that it was love, the ability to create and wield a rather big flaming spear or a lightning covered battle hammer would work just as well.

As the night passed Dumbledore spent time reading through the new chronicles of the founding of his school. Albus was fascinated by the role Harry was documented as playing. He seemed to be involved in every aspect apparently moving every stone in the castle and carving every rune for the wards, becoming increasingly drawn into the life of his student Albus was startled by the knock on his door and more startled when it opened without his saying a word to reveal Harry and his wife.

"Good Morning Albus" seeing his former mentor's reading material Harry smiled. "Interesting book?"

"Wonderful Harry, simply marvellous. That you accomplished so much beggars belief but I'm half tempted to believe it doesn't do you justice."

"Oh I don't know about that, it was written by Rowena and Helga for the most part. They both tend to be rather bias towards me." Replied Harry with a self deprecating smile. Rowena rolled her eyes and clipped her husband round the ear.

"Don't listen to him headmaster. It's actually a fairly faithful account." Turning to her husband she started again "Don't you have something to ask?"

"Oh yes! Can't believe I forgot the reason for coming. Professor I was wondering if you could ask Ginny to come here please, possibly with Pro...Minerva?"

"Of course" answered the aged Headmaster. "Just Miss Weasley?" he enquired as he attached a quick note to Fawkes who quickly disappeared.

"For now yes." Harry grimaced "It's going to be a rather unpleasant conversation and the fewer witnesses the better."

"Ah in that case, upon Miss Weasley's arrival I will make myself scarce."

"Thank you Headmaster." Rowena answered for her distracted husband.

"It's Albus my dear. I understand that you will wish to talk to me later in regard to your scar Harry."

"Hmmm? Oh yes professor but that will take rather a lot of time I would prefer to see my friends first if you don't mind. I haven't seen them in nearly thirty years. I managed to put it off yesterday I don't think I'm willing to do it again."

After nodding his agreement the trio sat silently for a few minutes before a knock was heard at the door.

"Ah Minerva, Miss Weasley come in please." Responded the Headmaster.

The office door opened to reveal a somewhat confused looking redhead. The pair stepped in to the room and Ginny looked around. Her eyes finally came to rest on the strange man who had just stood to greet her. Her confused look lasted for a few seconds before the colour drained from her face and she gasped.

"With that I'll take my leave." Dumbledore stated quickly. "Miss Weasley would you like Professor McGonagall to stay?" Ginny nodded but no one was entirely clear that she had heard what was asked. As Albus left the room and closed he heard a very quiet "It was real" from the redhead.

Inside the office Ginny was struggling to breathe. "B-But it can't have been real it made no sense."

"What can't be real Miss Weasley?" asked McGonagall unsure of whether to try and comfort the possibly distraught girl.

"Two nights ago after the Department something happened. I was woken up by a woman who said she was me that she was from the future and that Harry was going to go back in time to train to properly fight the war and if I wanted him I needed to go with him. It made no sense and I'm with Dean and I'm over Harry, I am." The girl spoke quietly though and it was clear to everyone she was trying to convince herself. "So I said no and went back to sleep. I forgot about it until just now."

Sighing Harry hated himself for having to have this conversation, it was clear that Ginny was hurting. "It was real Ginny, she came to me after speaking to you and convinced me to go to the Room of Requirement which ended up sending me back to the time of the Founders were I trained.

"The future Ginny and I talked a bit more." The teenager looked up at this. "She and I were married as we would be if our future selves hadn't interfered."

Rowena looked at the girl in front of her. She knew about the Chamber now. Harry had always called it an 'incident' before, trying not to colour the perceptions of the other Founders towards Salazar, but he had explained the details last night. Observing the girl she could see why Harry might have fallen for her. She was cute and feisty and living with her brothers had apparently instilled both devious and independent streaks in the teen. She had also experienced darkness in a way few others had. Of course given her knowledge of her husband's feelings for her and the obvious age gap there was no competition between the two. In fact she was more inclined to get to know the girl better, there was a possibility she wanted to explore.

Minerva McGonagall watched the scene before her unfold and felt for the girl she had taught for four years. It wasn't that she had gambled and lost, she had tried to grow up and move on with her life. Everyone in Gryffindor knew of her crush on Harry Potter, and after the Chamber Minerva knew the crush was on Harry Potter, not 'The-Boy-Who-Lived', but she had seen the girl attempt to start a friendship instead. Explore other possibilities with other boys and put her past behind her. That she needed to know the details of the time-travel phenomenon was unquestioned since she was uniquely involved but it felt indescribably cruel.

Harry continued after a short pause, unsure of the best way to proceed. "Apparently though the future needed to be interfered with, thousands died ad final battle here was particularly cruel. F-Fred was one of those lost."

Ginny was alarmed at that. That war would have casualties was obvious, that it could have been a member of her family was a possibility even if she hadn't really contemplated it but the fact that it would be Fred, one half of a pair just seemed unfair. Taking the time to settle herself she breathed deeply. Well if her not being married to Harry meant Fred would live it was something she could cope with, besides she was with Dean, and happy, and there are plenty more men anyway.

Becoming more composed with that thought she decided to start asking questions "So why not Ron and Hermione? How come they didn't go back with you?"

The grin that appeared on Harry's face was rather predatory and both Ginny and the Professor were rather disconcerted. "You know about Hermione and the Time Turner?" Ginny nodded. "Well after that she decided she shouldn't mess around with time. It was exceptionally dangerous. So when our older selves went to see her with the plan she refused outright saying she couldn't in good conscience play around with time."

"And Ron?"

Harry's grin magnified, "Wouldn't leave his wife when she was so adamant. He didn't want to risk the possibility of not being with her."

The gleam that appeared in Ginny's eyes at this news would have significantly scared the two absent members of the 'Golden Trio' had they seen it.

The smirk on McGonagall's face indicated that she too, as with the rest of school was rather tired of the sexual tension surrounding the pair.

Much happier now Ginny decided to carry on with her questions.

"So Harry is there a reason you haven't yet introduced me to the woman beside you?" she looked at him expectantly.

"Yes Harry your manners are rather appalling, I know I taught you better." Rowena smirked while Harry winced. "Rowena Potter, formerly Ravenclaw, Harry's wife."

Ginny's eyes widened comically and she settled herself in for what was sure to be a fascinating story...


	5. 5 Closing down and restart

Apologies for the length of time this has been hanging around on four chapters but this is a quick note to say I won't be updating this particular story anymore.

Sorry for leaving it as is for so long but it was developing plot holes and I'd written myself into a corner, the confrontation with Ron and Hermione was coming up and I found myself really not wanting to write it. I think I just don't particularly like either character, let alone know how to write them effectively.

That said I've started it again. It's imaginatively titled **Feels Like Home New**, though in a few weeks I'll take this story down and revert back. I'll warn you updates will be slowish, half the problems with the original are because I rushed it so will be taking my time. Thankyou for all your reviews. You have been too kind. I hope you enjoyed what was written and that you enjoy the knew one even more. For those that don't skip to the new one thanks for reading in the firstplace.


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